


Duanwu

by Valitiel (Vishnal)



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Cultural Differences, F/F, Fluff, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-08
Updated: 2016-06-08
Packaged: 2018-07-13 21:20:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7137668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vishnal/pseuds/Valitiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zarya is stationed in Yunnan with Mei. The city is bustling and getting more and more active with the approaching Dragon Boat festival. Of course Mei is excited to share the festival with Zarya.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Duanwu

“Zarya!” There was a brief pause, huffing and foreign cursing under each breath, which altogether was not an uncommon thing to hear considering the multitudes of languages that the Overwatch had in their ranks. It was even less of an unusual occurrence to Zarya while she was stationed in LiJiang tower, as the populace around her chattered away in varying dialects of an already unknown language to her. “Wait up! Oh… It’s awful to run in this weather.”

Mei bounded up to her, carrying two large plastic bags with something mildly firm and pointy sticking out of them. “I have something for you! I got it from one of my favourites in the night market! Xi yi xia!” She reached into the plastic bag and handed Zarya a small pyramid wrapped in thick bamboo leaf. The leaf was bound to whatever was inside it with a piece of twine wrapped once around each corner.

In truth, Zarya had no idea what in the world was inside. It was firm and a little heavy. There was an aromatic savory smell to it, but a sheen of oil to the leaves that told Zarya that this was not something to eat everyday. She looked at Mei and back at the bundle that he held and the Chinese woman nodded excitedly. “Try! Try! The family has been making it for generations. I was surprised that they were still here even after I came back from Antartica! Nai nai was so surprised. You should have seen her. Mei-Ling! You didn’t age a bit!” Mei laughed and put the plastic bags down by her feet. “At least half of these are for Winston! Even if you don’t like it…”

Zarya scratched the back of her head. “It’s not that… Do I just…  Bite into it?” She pulled off the twine and peeked into the leaf packaging.

“No! Open it. It’s really good.” Mei winked and took one from one of the plastic bags before she crouched down and unraveled her own zongzi. “It’s rice dumpling. It’s got a whole egg yolk in it, so unless you’re planning on hibernating I wouldn’t eat more than one of these.” She bit in and chewed on her dumpling. Zarya eased herself down into a cross legged sit, propping herself against the wall before sliding down onto the floor. “I didn’t think I’d see another dragon boat festival you know. Now Yunnan is so hot.  So much hotter than the station in Antarctica. It’s still so great. People are all still coming out every year to eat these and watch dragon boat races.”

Zarya nodded and bit into her own. She took a tentative bite from the corner of the rice first and was pleasantly surprised by the taste. The idea of marinated and compacted rice seemed odd at first, especially with the random assortments of meat and egg yolk nonsensically dispersed within the rice itself, but the taste was not bad. The rice itself was savory and not mushy in texture. There was a pleasant tingle of salt followed by the unique flavour of the leaf that had sunken into the rice from being steamed within the leaves. “I am glad then to share this meal with you.” Zarya took a bigger bite from the zongzi and nodded in an assuring gesture. “We can go to observatory and see the fireworks yes?”

Mei shot up and nodded excitedly. “Oh! Of course! There will be fireworks all night long. I hope you won’t be kept up by it!” Mei was considerate of her peers’ adjustment to Yunnan’s busy night life. It was simplier to do things in the evening when it wasn’t broiling hot outside. The only time anyone could come outside to do any mildly enjoyable activity was in the night time… It was at times hard to adjust to the noise and light pollution. Mei had often told Zarya how hard it was to sleep in the Antarctic without the noises and lights that people provided.

“It’s even better in person though! There are so many people everywhere and we can get some a-meeeei-zing bubble tea! I know where!” Mei pulled Zarya up and tugged her to the exit.

“But won’t you be hot Mei? It’s 28 degrees out.” Zarya patted Mei on the shoulder. Last time they had gone outside Mei had nearly gotten heat stroke and passed out on the street. It was the first time that Zarya was thankful for how crowded the city was and that every two steps there was another street vendor selling some sort of cold beverage. “We can watch from inside if it is too hot.”

“Don’t worry I got a plan!” Mei let go of Zarya’s hand wrist and picked up the plastic bags from the ground. “Don’t move! I’ll be right back.” Mei winked at Zarya and ran off towards the kitchen. Zarya in that time finished her rice dumpling and discarded the oil stained leaves. She crossed her arms and leaned up against a wall.

Right when she was considering getting up and searching for Mei, the woman came back with a tight, thick shirt on. “Mei. It is too hot to be wearing that. We can’t take the endothermic gun with us outside to see the fireworks.”

Mei smiled knowlingly and scratched the back of her head. That was only one time that she took the gun outside and it was almost 38 degrees with humidity. “Don’t worry.” She pressed up against Zarya and laughed loudly when Zarya jumped at the cold. “I put cold packs under my shirt!”

Zarya paused for a moment and then laughed. “Okay. You are very smart.” She hadn’t seen the ice packs due to the thick fabric, but now she definitely noticed them. “Then you will not mind sharing our cold pack.” She threw her arm over Mei and pulled her close. The cold was welcoming as was the person it was being emitted from. “Definitely not!”

**Author's Note:**

> Dragon boat festival commemorates the death of a famous scholar whose body was said to have fallen into a river. The people who loved him so much, rushed out to the river on dragon boats to save the body by throwing in food like zongzi to keep the fish from eating the body.


End file.
